


kittens

by raven_aorla



Category: Vikings (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Fix-It, Floki is a Decent Guy, Fluff and Angst, Helga is precious beyond words, I made her a lesbian because I can, Multi, Rollo's victim shouldn't have to be defined by him, Slavery, because I was worrying about her, cute wedding customs, reference is very vague, reference to past rape
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-15
Updated: 2014-04-15
Packaged: 2018-01-19 11:43:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1468204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raven_aorla/pseuds/raven_aorla
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Before meeting Helga, Floki had a slave. By the time he met Helga he no longer did. </p><p>Today, a free woman brings Floki's new wife a gift.</p>
            </blockquote>





	kittens

**Author's Note:**

> I call her "Dagny" because my perfunctory research says it means "a new day". Her partner's name is "Ingeborg" because that same perfunctory research says it means "god's protection", which the poor girl could have used.
> 
> I'm assuming Floki never found out that Rollo raped his slave, because even with the pretty much nonexistent rights thralls had that would legally count as Rollo stealing from Floki. And Floki would not have let that slide. 
> 
> I have not done research on Viking attitudes towards same-sex female relationships, but throughout history such relationships were often invisible to outsiders, seen as single women living together for protection and security, and I figure Vikings would have other things on their minds and not bother with policing the exact nature of such households.
> 
> I do not mean to imply that Dagny's orientation is a result of trauma, which it isn't. I really just want more femslash in the world and I will manufacture it wherever I can.
> 
> Oh, and bringing a new bride a kitten really was traditional.

Dagny decided to hold back until almost all the well-wishers had given their respects to the couple. She knew Earl Ragnar was not at the wedding despite his long friendship with Floki, meaning the Earl's brother was certainly not going to show his face here. Yet even after seven years of freedom she was timid among crowds. Ingeborg always encouraged her to make friends but didn't push her. She was the only person Dagny had ever told the real reason why she seldom went to Kattegat, whom she was afraid of seeing.

Now she wished Ingeborg could be here rather than at a laboring mother's side. As an accomplished midwife Ingeborg had many friends and would have introduced her with that easy grace of someone who'd never had reason to be afraid. "This is my friend," she'd say. "She keeps house for me and helps me gather medicinal herbs. She's a wonder at that - wonderful at repairing the roof, too, and can carve wood better than most men I've known. Why would I want a husband when I have such a wife?"

And people would laugh and not think overmuch about the lies she had carefully not spoken. 

While Dagny hesitated at the edge of the festivities, though, the bride herself approached her. "I don't believe we've met," Helga said, aglow with joy and the promise of motherhood, voice sweet as spring berries.

"I...I brought you a gift." Dagny lifted her small basket from the ground and pulled the blanket away to reveal a pair of kittens, one mostly white with black spots and one mostly black with a single white foot, as if it had stepped into cream. 

Helga gasped, accepting the basket into their arms. "Oh, they're lovely. Thank you."

"Both she-cats. I know it's traditional to give only one, but I couldn't bear to separate them." She'd found them in the woods while looking for wild garlic, crying against the body of their dead mother who had curled around them as a last act of protection. They'd grown strong again under her care, sucking goat's milk from a rag until they could manage rats she'd killed for them, and now could hunt on their own.

One of the kittens lifted its head to stare at Helga, and pawed inquisitively at her gown. The other one mewed and tried to climb out of the basket. "I appreciate your generosity. I still don't know your name, or why you're standing alone near the trees."

Dagny breathed deep. "I was once Floki's slave. He promised to free me if I took good care of his home on his first raid to the West - or that a friend of his would, if he died in battle. He gave me a bag of coins to start my new life. It was much later when I found out old Earl Haraldson had only let the raiders keep one thing each from the plunder."

"Oh." Helga's eyes went wide. Then she abruptly set the basket down and wrapped Dagny in an embrace. "Then I must thank you again. For giving me another sign of how much the gods have blessed me with my choice of husband."

"I...you are welcome. I wish you a healthy child and a happy home."

Letting go, Helga gestured at the revelers. "Will you not join the celebration? I should get back to Floki before he gets drunk enough to kiss Torstein in front of the guests. Some might misunderstand it as an insult to me."

Dagny couldn't help but gape a little. "Then he is..."

"Torstein is friend to both of us." Then Helga smiled with a touch of mischief. "I believe you are a...friend...of Ingeborg the midwife, yes?"

Speechless, Dagny simply nodded. 

"I will introduce you as my friend, if you like, and I won't let a man touch you. Floki has good taste in friends but some don't quite understand that unmarried does not always mean interested."

A few minutes later Dagny had a plate of food and a cup of ale, watching her old master coo over a pair of kittens, letting them climb on him and telling them they would grow to be the fiercest hunters in all the land. Floki winked at her and didn't say a word about how they'd known one another. Helga announced to all who came near that her friend Dagny could visit so infrequently, please don't try to take her away from the bride's side. Torstein didn't seem to recognize Dagny from all those years ago and kindly fetched her another drink when she had drained hers.

"Did you name them?" asked a child who was entranced with the white-footed kitten, scurrying her hand through the grass and laughing when the kitten tried to catch it. 

"No," Dagny said. "I was always planning on letting them go."


End file.
